Friday, November 30, 2012

Rebels Defeat Tigers 6-5

Hunter Shinkaruk back in the lineup.
Jayden Hart back in the lineup
Ty Stanton back in the lineup

1st Period

The first period was a snooze fest. Lots of neutral zone play and not a whole lot of offensive chances.

Red Deer's Brandon Underwood would slap a knuckle puck on net near his blueline. Lanigan would whiff with his glove. 1-0 Rebels

A minute and a half later some bad positioning would cost them as Cory Millet would pick up the puck near the boards cutting in front of 2 Tigers. He would find Connor Bleakly who managed to get his stick on the pass and put a shot towards the goal which beat Lanigan in the butterfly. 2-0 Rebels

I thought the rebels were the better team in the first period even though the Tigers outshot them. 13-10

2nd Period
3:34 in Hunter Shinkaruk would gain an inch and drive to the net. He would throw the puck out front and it bounced in off of Curtis Valk's shin-pads and into the net. 2-1 Rebels.

Midway through the 2nd the Tigers turned the puck over and the Rebels would create a 3 on 2 Rush. They couldn't have played the 3 on 2 any better. 1 guy rushed the net, Rhyse Dieno would hesitate find the Trailer in the slot and Cory Millete put one past Cam Lanigan 3-1 Rebels

Late in the period the Tigers started pressing hard and would score a couple quick goals.

Shinkaruk off the rush would go behind the net and find Busenius at the point. Bus did a good job at hesitating to get a clear shot at the net which beat a screened Bartosak 3-2 Rebels.

Boston Leier would get dumped by Brandon Underwood and it led to a Tigers powerplay.

Elgin Pearce won a faceoff back to Spenser Jensen who fired a shot on net. Curtis Valk would get his stick on it and the re-direction would fool Patrik Bartosak 3-3 TIE

3rd Period
A horrible start to the 3rd period as the rebels score twice in just over a minute of play. Spenser Jensen tripped himself up going to smash a forward behind the boards. This left the crease open where Brooks Maxwell found Turner Elson for a bang bang play. 4-3 Rebels

The rebels would add to their lead off a bad goal from Lanigan. Wyatt Johnson would float a wrister on net and Lanigan would whiff with his glove for the 2nd time tonight. 5-3 Rebels.

That would mark the end of Lanigan's night in favor of Marek Langhamer.

7:18 in Trevor Cox would receive a gift from some Hard Work by Boston Leier. Leier fired a bad angle shot on net got his own rebound went behind the Rebel net and threaded a pass out front to Trevor Cox who had a partial open net 5-4 Rebels.

Then the nail-breaker. The Tigers were all over the rebels with multiple scoring chances. The next Rebel rush up the ice saw Brooks Maxwell go top shelf short side on a perfect shot over Langhamer's shoulder. 6-4 Rebels.

With the goalie pulled Curtis Valk would walk off the halfwall and thread a pass over to Elgin Pearce at the far side. Pearce fired a quick low shot on net that beat Bartosak 6-5 Rebels.

With 30 seconds left the Tigers couldn't generate anything after the puck hit the linesman and forced the Tigers offside...They took 2 tries to clear and the Buzzer sounded, handing the Tigers their 8th straight loss.

Thoughts
Rhyse Dieno played on the Rebels top line and was quite a factor. 3 assists on his former team giving him 7 points in 6 games with his return to the whl.

I thought the Tigers didn't play that well in the first period but showed strong character battling back from 2 goal deficits multiple times. Lanigan made some big saves but also let in a couple weak goals.

The Tigers had more offensive punch with Hart, and SHinkaruk back in the lineup. One positive was that the mistakes they made are fixable instead of totally getting outplayed like they have been the last few games. I would like to see a better team effort on finishing their hits.

Dieno didnt do enough last year to prove he would be a top 6 forward.Glad to see he got his confidence back in SJHL and is having success.We hoped Boston would have a break out year, got led down the garden path a little re Knowles ability as a hockey player(he has a shot, just missing the rest of the package). Oh Well, next year.No Tigers made under 17 teams, not good for long term either.

The coach should not be changed. If you have watched any WHL when you have a young team you struggle. It is our turn. New tiger fans have not been around long enough to know that you don't make playoffs every year. We have had a good run, our turn to struggle a bit. I still like the potential in this team!